COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:

I read with great interest the views of Whitney Kate Graham regarding how students view the homeless situation, particularly here in Orange County (“Reality of Depression lost on students,” Dec. 25).

I certainly understand and share her concern that the students be given an experience which delves more into the homeless’ daily needs and their need for more emergency and transitional housing for those who live on the streets of our 34 Orange County communities. On any given night there are more than 35,000 homeless individuals on the streets of Orange County, more than half of whom are children.

While the students may not totally understand a homeless person’s plight, I was intrigued that a school would at least have the students be made aware that the problem exists and that they have empathy and compassion the next time they encounter someone not as fortunate. We have many suffering from the lack of food or other essentials even when they have a roof over their head. That is witnessed by the more than 40% increase this past year in asking for assistance at our 5 Family Service offices serving Orange County.

Graham makes reference that she wished the students serve in an actual soup kitchen or volunteer in some way for those organizations serving the homeless here in Orange County. Our Anaheim Adult Rehabilitation Center serves those men and women with alcohol and drug addiction problems. The six-month program assists in giving them a “Hand Up, not a Hand Out.”

We just finished the Christmas season and doing our annual Christmas Distribution Warehouse at Angel Stadium where the Salvation Army served more than 2,000 families which represents more than 8,000 people. We had more than 150 volunteers each day for the three-day distribution period. More than one-third of those volunteers were from Century High School in Santa Ana, spearheaded by forward thinking business teacher Alan Gersten, who has used this as a community service project for nearly 10 years. He says as long as he is at the school he plans to involve his students in this volunteer effort. They packed food and toys, and were runners for the families arriving to receive their gifts. I might add that “they had a blast” and loved doing it and knew why they were there.

To learn more about volunteer opportunities, please e-mail me.

BARRY A. FROST is the Director of Communications and Public Relations at The Salvation Army Orange County. E-mail him at barry.frost@usw.salvationarmy.org.